I’ve been a Kiss fan since 1980, when I was 9 years old. I was living in Australia at that time, and the band was *huge* then! Unfortunately my parents didn’t let me see them in concert as I was too young :(

I lost interest in the band for a while after that, and didn’t get back into them again until the mid-1980's. I was then living in New Zealand. I was getting a bored with the current popular music on TV and radio - mostly pop and synthesizer crap - so I dug out and played some of the Kiss old LP’s and cassettes I still had. I still enjoyed the music, remembered how cool the band was, and that hooked me in again. That inspired me to go and get the rest of the albums, and I have stayed a strong fan ever since!

After acquiring all the official releases, I wanted to hear more material. So I started collecting many rare audios such as live recordings, pirate/bootlegs, demos, unreleased versions, etc over the years. Not to mention the merchandise! I traded audios back in the day when trades used to be done by cassette! I used to type up and post my trade lists (yes, post! That's how long ago I started!) to others all around the world, and made many friends in the process. As technology developed I started emailing my lists instead, and trading evolved from cassette, to CD-Rs, and now often with electionic files. While torrents and such-like are sometimes good, I find some traders don't preserve the original quality. They will swap files but they reduce them to lossy, low bitrate MP3's. I've always avoided that, and always try to get the best quality version of stuff that I can.

I’ve had quite a few requests from people to see lists of what I have on audio, which is what inspired me to publish this website.

Scroll down further to read more!

Any questions, please feel free to

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Regards,

Tony

P.S. If you like this website, feel free to link to it from your own site. Thanks!

10 Reasons Why I Think My Audios Are The Best

Many people have unofficial audio recordings - but I think mine are some of the best around. Not only that, I am one of the most reliable of people to deal with. Here's why:

1) I've been collecting for well over 20 years now - and have dealt with many satisfied people - I've never had an unhappy person I've dealt with. You know how some traders never send their end of the trade, or take forever to reply? You'll never have that with me.

2) When I obtained many of my audios (in the days before CD's), I tried to get as many as I could on good brand chrome/metal cassettes, rather than normal cassettes, which I stored in a cool, dark place away from dust and sunlight. These cost more, but lasted much longer than normal cassettes. This meant that as technology moved ahead and I came to transfer them onto CD, the sound quality had largely remained the same - unlike many people who had their old recordings on normal cassette, and found they deteriorated over the years. Remember - the vast majority of unauthorised/bootleg audio that dates up to the early 90's, would originally have been recorded or traded by someone, somewhere on cassette.
Also, don't be fooled just because a file is in lossless FLAC or WAV format - it doesn't always mean you're getting the best quality version. It's easy to take the crappiest, worst generation copy in the world, and digitise it into lossless FLAC! And then people assume, because it's FLAC, it's the best quality. Wrong!
(Although, having said that - when trading digitally please always use FLAC or other lossless formats to stop further quality loss. Lossy MP3 is a traders enemy!)

3) When transferring from cassette to CD, I use a high end audio editing program to 'clean up' the recording - removing hiss, and pops and clicks, and maximising the volume over the dynamic range (being careful to avoid distortion or clipping or damaging the original sound).

4) If burning the CD-R, I always use a slow burning speed on a good brand CD writer (this means less jitter and deviation in the CD laser when writing). I use good brand CD-R's, such as Mitsubishi, Sony or TDK - not no-name generic brands. The burning software then verifies the written data, and then I play the disc through my own CD player afterwards as a double-check. Although every CD player is different, this means the chances of you receiving a disc that doesn't play are extremely low. If for any reason you do get a disc that won't play, I'll happily send you a replacement.

5) Each disc has CD text enabled - meaning when you play it in a CD text compatible player, the correct artist and song will be displayed. Many people don't bother doing this!

6) Track listings are accurate - each concert is split into the correct tracks at the right time, without the default 2 second gap that some software inserts (some people don't bother doing this, meaning you can't fast-forward between songs, or have an anoying pause between songs).

7) I can include include printed covers with the CD-R's if requested. I won't write on the physical disc with a permanent marker as some people do, as the ink in the marker can potentially damage the disc.

8) Every audio I have, I have listened to in full - and graded it myself according to my rating system. I've also attempted to confirm date/venue/city details if possible, and I try to have a 'more information' page on each slow showing the track listings) this is a work in progress!)

9) I have many hundreds of audios available - there are few, if any, traders who have the range of audios like I do. I guess that's what happens when you collect for over 20 years!

10) I will always post the audios promptly, and well packaged so they don't get damaged in transit. I used to trade with some people who just chucked the stuff in a normal envelope - the covers and/or discs used to get damaged in transit - that used to annoy me!

What's In This Website?

Navigate using the buttons at the top of each page. You'll find the following information:

MP3 Sample: A MP3 sample of something from my collection which I update regularly. It could be a rarity, a demo, or a rare live song! If there's something you particularly would like to hear, please let me know and I'll try my best. If you'd like me to send you an e-mail each time the MP3 sample changes, please let me know.

Merchandise: Information on some of the merchandise from my own collection. The page has further links to bubblegum cards, tour books, and more to come. Most of this is just for information and enjoyment, but I will also occasionally have spare items I am selling here too - currently a couple of rare tour promotional items.

Cool Stuff: This is where I will put other odds and ends. Currently I have my story from the Farewell Tour, where my friends and I went to the after-party and almost met the band, and saw Gene Simmons flashing his butt! And yes there are photos of that! Not to mention seeing Ace Frehley trashed, and accidentally almost sniffing Paul Stanley's crotch! There's also some photos from the shows themselves that I took. I'll add other stuff over time to this page.